Kings are playing like a No. 1 seed

NHL playoff 2012: L.A. Kings playing like a No. 1 seed

LOS ANGELES — When Ken Hitchcock said that if you beat the No. 1 seed, you become the No. 1 seed, it was just his coachly way of trying to shift the pressure away from his St. Louis Blues.

But backhanded or not, the notion that the Los Angeles Kings — who eliminated the Presidents Trophy-winning Vancouver Canucks 4-1 in the first round — are the best team still alive in the West may not be wrong.

If they’re not, the Blues are doing little to disprove the theory.

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Chris Stewart’s second goal of the game, off a loose puck that slipped out of Jonathan Quick’s glove 4:35 into the third period, brought the Blues to within a goal at 3-2 after a lacklustre couple of periods by a team fighting for its playoff life.

But a third weak goal given up by St. Louis netminder Brian Elliott, Drew Doughty’s unscreened slapper from the middle of the ice that trickled between Elliott’s pads at 11:48, iced a 4-2 victory for the Kings, who now lead the series 3-0.

Game 4 is Sunday at noon Pacific time.

“As a group of guys, we’ve stayed focused and worked hard, and tonight was probably one of our stronger games — we didn’t give up much,” said Kings captain Dustin Brown.

“I think Quickie may have had two tough saves for us in the third period — and they were big saves — but we got a big night out of Ricky (Mike Richards) and a contribution from a lot of guys.”

Richards’ assist on Doughty’s goal completed a Gordie Howe hat-trick: goal, assist and fight. He earlier scored from a bad angle on Elliott, the first power play goal of the series from either team, and fought Blues’ Jamie Langenbrunner six minutes into the game after an exchange of axe-swings.

“Yeah, I think it’s my first one,” Richards said. “The intensity carried over from the last game, and we wanted to come out to a good start, and they did, too. Things happen in games.”

The ill humour that characterized the last two periods of Game 2 — when the Blues attempted to extract a pound of L.A. flesh after falling behind 4-0 — carried over, but for all the hits and misses, the result was a grand total of four shots on Quick in the first period, and no goals.

In fact, the Kings had most of the play after Richards and Langenbrunner tangled, and especially after Brown hip-checked defenceman Alex Pietrangelo, freshly returned from injury, leading to a skirmish that raised the Blues’ blood pressure.

Kings’ Justin Williams got the period’s only goal when he eluded an attempted hit by Vladimir Sobotka at the St. Louis blueline and combined with Anze Kopitar and Doughty on a nifty bit of three-way passing, finishing with a shot that might have gone wide had it not hit the inside of Elliott’s right pad as it was passing through the crease at 13:33.

Kopitar turned the puck over avoiding another big hit attempt by Roman Polak, resulting in Stewart’s tying goal 1:03 into the second, but 50 seconds later, L.A. defenceman Matt Greene sent Dwight King away on a breakaway and the big rookie winger beat Elliot to the blocker side — and halfway through the game, the Blues had a paltry seven shots on goal.

“I think the timing of that goal was pretty important,” said Brown. “Especially when we’re in command of the series, and it gives them a little bit of life when they get that goal, to come right back like that on Kinger’s goal takes the wind out of their sails.”

Richards’ goal gave the Kings a 3-1 lead midway through the second, breaking an 0-for-14 streak of power play futility, and as little as the Blues were generating, it looked like the kiss of death.

It wasn’t, quite, but the Reaper may be in the offing.

“It’s not how many we get, but when we get ‘em, and it was nice to get one tonight, hopefully it starts a trend,” said Richards. “I was just throwing it on goal and got a little lucky there, it just squeaked through and I don’t even think it hit the back of the net.”

If Jaroslav Halak, Blues’ 1A goaltender, hadn’t been hurt, the coach undoubtedly would have gone to the bullpen at that point, but with only untested Jake Allen as an option, he was stuck with Elliott, who’s having an awful time of it in this series.